Conventionally, a label printer described in Patent Literature 1 has been known. According to this label printer, during movement of a sheet of paper having a liner and labels temporarily attached to the liner at regular intervals, a print head (specifically, a thermal head) prints letters or marks according to print data on each of the labels that passes a print position. In printing letters or marks according to the print data on a following label that passes the print position in a similar manner after completion of printing on a leading label, when a boundary portion between the leading label that has been printed and the following label comes at a cut position, the paper stops moving and printing on the following label is suspended, the paper is cut at the boundary portion and the leading label that has been printed is separated. Then, feeding of the paper is resumed, and printing on the label for which the printing is suspended, is also resumed.
Further, where information to be printed according to the print data includes a bar code, then after completion of printing on the leading label, the movement of the paper continues without performing printing on the following label that passes the print position. Then, when the boundary portion between the leading label that has been printed and the following label comes to the cut position, the paper stops moving and is cut at the boundary portion and, the leading label that has been printed is separated. Subsequently, the paper moves in a reverse direction (backward) such that a leading end of the following label (a new leading label) comes at the print position. Then, again, printing on this following label is performed while the paper moves in a regular (forward) direction. Thereafter, printing on each label is similarly performed by repeating printing on a label, cutting of the paper, and moving of the paper in a reverse direction.
According to such a conventional printer (label printer) described above, if the information to be printed does not include a bar code, during sequential printing on the labels, feeding of the paper and printing on the following label are suspended when separating the leading label and resumed after the leading label is separated. Therefore, it is possible to perform printing to the labels sequentially arranged along the liner at higher speed. In this case, even a slight displacement between the print head and the paper that can occur due to suspension and resuming of feeding of and printing on the paper may result in a white streak in letters or marks that have been printed, but it is possible to make such a streak hardly visually noticeable if there is any.
On the other hand, if such a white streak occurs when the information to be printed includes a bar code and the bar code includes the white streak, it is not possible to read the information of the bar code even if the streak is visually unnoticeable. Accordingly, when the information to be printed includes a bar code, as described above, upon completion of printing to a label, the paper is moved to the cut position without performing printing on a following label, and printing on the following label is performed after the paper is cut and moved backward. In this manner, as printing on the following label is not performed until a label that has been printed is separated from the paper, it is possible to prevent a white streak from occurring in a bar code without fail.
As described above, according to the conventional label printer, when the information to be printed does not include a bar code, it is possible to print at higher speed without moving the paper in a reverse direction, and when the information code includes a bar code, it is possible to print the information without fail.